Enes Kanter wanted to send a message to LeBron James and show him that these are not last season’s Knicks.

Kanter got into a scuffle with James during the Knicks’ 104-101 loss to the Cavaliers on Monday night at the Garden. Afterward, Kanter poked fun at James’ self-appointed nickname “The King,” changing it to the female version of royalty.

“You ain’t coming to my house and playing that water bottle flip game again,” Kanter said, referring to what James and other Cavs did during their blowout victory at the Garden last season. “I don’t care who you are. What do you call yourself, King, Queen, Princess, whatever you are. We’re going to fight. Nobody out there is going to punk us.”

James didn’t seem bothered by Kanter’s remarks.

“Well, I’m The King, my wife is The Queen and my daughter is The Princess, so we got all three covered,” he said.

This all stemmed from James taking what was perceived as a shot at rookie Frank Ntilikina when he said over the weekend that the Mavericks’ Dennis Smith Jr. “should have been a Knick.” James said it was a shot at former Knicks president Phil Jackson, who passed on Smith and took Ntilikina.

In the first quarter, Ntilikina pushed James out of the way when he was trying to inbound the ball, and Kanter came running to the rookie’s defense. Kanter and James jawed and then James pushed Kanter.

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Al Iannazzone has been covering the Knicks and the NBA for Newsday since January 2012 after following the NBA for 11 years for The Record (N.J.). Al appeared regularly on the YES Network's Nets pregame show in 2005-11.